Battery-operated pre-loadable digital frame

November 19, 2012 1:08 PM

I'm looking for a battery-operated pre-loadable digital picture frame as a Xmas present for my elderly grandmother - can you help me find something that fits my requirements?

I'd like to get my grandmother a digital picture frame for Xmas but am having a hard time finding something that works. Requirements:
- Needs to be battery-operated. I'm shipping this to Europe from the US and for various reasons, want to avoid an AC plug and adaptor
- Not internet-dependent. I want to be able to download the pics before I send it to her; she doesn't have internet in her assisted living home
- Super easy to use. She suffers from dementia and is not tech savvy at all - the attendants will be able to help if necessary but I'd obviously like to keep that to a minimum
- Affordable. I'd like to keep it below USD50 if possible

Resolution is not a big issue for this - her eyesight isn't the best and it's all just snapshots of the great-grandkids.

My mormor and I thank you in advance for your help!

posted by widdershins to shopping (5 answers total)

Just a thought -- if you're sending it off to Europe and you're planning on downloading all the pics beforehand and not updating it via internet -- you could instead use those photos and create a custom photo book via Shutterfly or another service. Might be easier for someone under the conditions you describe.
posted by BlahLaLa at 1:12 PM on November 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

We use a Ceiva Frame for this exact purpose. Has worked well and has an iphone app for easy uploading. Not sure about the batteries but the frame works well.
posted by pearlybob at 1:23 PM on November 19, 2012

The power requirement is going to be a sticking point because a digital photo frame is just a small LCD monitor, so even something like this on Amazon which has a built in battery, is going to need to recharged from a wall plug pretty often (3hr battery life, but motion detected to help out on that). Maybe BlahLaLa's solution is the best overall.
posted by Static Vagabond at 2:17 PM on November 19, 2012

Every digital picture frame I have ever seen had a wal wart power supply. That means all you'll need to change is the physical type of plug. You can buy one of those easily and than just make sure she knows how to work the plug. (It isn't hard and you could probably set it up for her in the US and be able to send it with the cable in the luggage all connected back to Europe.

I would go with this one. It has a slot for running off of a SD card so if you wanted to update the pictures the card just needs to be switched out and presto new pictures. You can find 1Gb cards for really cheap now so it wouldn't be that big of an expense to send new cards. The cards also only fit in one way and provided you don't do things like use metal tools that are fairly old lady proof. If you had it running on batteries then you are essentially giving a nice old lady something that will chew through batteries to the point that she will stop buying them and then the picture-frame will sit there unused.
posted by koolkat at 2:32 AM on November 20, 2012

Thank you all so much for your answers! After considering the power requirements, I decided the best option is to make a photobook per BlahLaLa's suggestion. I think she'd actually appreciate it more as well - less confusing for her and more showoff-able to her friends at the center.

I marked BLL's response as best answer, but all the responses helped me reach the decision, so thank you all!
posted by widdershins at 7:08 AM on November 20, 2012